Is it OK to drain your pool into a lake?

[sccm_sysadmin]

Hello all,

I recently acquired a house with a pool -- IG, vinyl, roughly 22,000 gallons. Pool is about 10 years old and (supposedly, according to the previous homeowner's pool guy) will need a liner in the next season or two. With the age of the pool I'm not surprised.

Just out of curiosity, is it OK to drain the pool into a local pond/lake? There's a 2-acre pond about 200ft behind my house. Seems like it would be an optimal place to drain the pool when it's eventually time to replace the liner.

I'm on well water with a septic system so I don't have a municipal supply I can drain it into.

Thanks!

 

[OTPirate]

There may be chemicals in your pool that would be harmful to the wildlife and plant life in a lake.

 

[sccm_sysadmin]

Perfect! There's a ton of Canada geese that live on the lake that are loud, obnoxious, and poop everywhere.

AND if I kill all the fish in the lake there won't be any reason for my brother-in-law to come over and go fishing! Double win!!

 

[Rollercoastr]

I live on a 5 acre pond. When my pool was drained for resurfacing, I drained as much as I could into the sewer, but most of it had to go outside. I dropped the CL levels as much as I could beforehand, but even so, later that day the corner of the pond closest to the pool water showed less algae than normal! ale:

Unfortunately, it didn't deter any Canada Geese. It may have attracted the dang things, which honk back at me when I chase them from my yard.

Unrelated side-note: I regularly enjoy watching a couple of huge swans bully the geese. I had company over the wkd, and they explained to me that the swans are invasive. These orange-billed "Mute Swans" were imported. The native Trumpeter Swans are all but gone.

 

[triptyx]

Probably not, but you'd be best calling your local water department to find out what the rules are for swimming pool water discharge. I couldn't find anything online, but that doesn't mean they don't have ordinances and huge fines for sending your pool water to the wrong place.

 

[Rollercoastr]

When I googled it, nearly every article mentioned reducing or eliminating CL first. They also like to see pH on the higher side.

 

[Donldson]

At the very least I would neutralize the chlorine, or allow it to drop to undetectable levels. It also depends on whether the pond is owned by anyone since you could run in to some trouble if you dump your water in to someone's pond without their permission.